In retail environments, point-of-sale areas must identify products to be purchased for sale by a customer. Point-of-sale devices that detect RFID tags on items presented by a customer at the point-of-sale area may fail to detect all the individual items when many items are presented at once. (bulk presentation). Increasing the power of an RF antenna disposed proximate to the point-of-sale area may expand the range of the RF antenna and falsely detect RFID tags that are not part of the items presented for purchase by the customer. These “fringe” tags may be tags nearby still on sales racks or with another customer near the point of sale area.
Accordingly, there is a need for bulk RFID tag reading at a point-of-sale area that avoids false RFID tag detections.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.
The apparatus and method components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.